[DeTomaso] water injection

[JDeRyke at aol.com]

I also lived with a Spearco 'computerized' water injection system for quite 
a few years. It had a small microprocessor to operate the built-in pump and 
was the best they offered at the time but it wasn't perfect. Several 
problems that Chuck didn't mention:
* It came with a single aluminum jet which quickly corroded shut in both 
plain and distilled water. So I made a jet out of brass which fixed the 
corrosion. You also had to keep all added fluids very clean 'cause the jet opening 
is only 0.022". Tiny weed seeds or dust plugged the jet. 
* The microprocessor occasionaly quit- I went thru three before giving up 
on Spearco (about the time they discontinued mfgr). Once, the thing stuck 
OPEN, dumping the reservoir's full 2 qts of water into the engine in less than 
a minute. I didn't know what had happened other than power went away altho 
the engine kept running. Others on the car tour 100 miles from home told me 
my exhaust looked like a steam engine. I was lucky the engine didn't 
hydraulic!
* After 5 yrs, the little DC pump & motor, built integral with the 
reservoir tank, simply fell apart. By that time, Spearco was out of business and no 
spare parts could be found (this was pre-E-Bay). 

Ak Miller the So-Cal turbo-guru sold Spearcos and dealt with their problems 
as best he could. Water injection was on everything 'performance' except 
drag racers- a Boss 429 Mustang with the NASCAR engine (so said the door tag) 
had a Spearco; the owner told us 'it didn't like running on only 98 octane' 
and he couldn't afford to run Sunoco 102 at 8 mpg. My Weber-carbed Corvair 
had one and quite a few turbo engines had water injection, including the 
factory-turbo 215 Olds V-8 in '62- this needed water injection to deliver any 
boost. There was an interlock that opened the integral wastegate if the 
'turbo-fluid' bottle went dry. Cutting-edge technology at the time.   FWIW- J 
Deryke


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